Chapter 833: Used in the Wrong Place

Chapter 833: Chapter 833: Used in the Wrong Place

"Guanghe District Health Center?"

Song Luojun paused in surprise before a meaningful smile spread across his face. "That’s where Li Xu used to work, isn’t it?"

"Yes," Ju Jiahong nodded, making no attempt to deny it. "I want to see exactly what kind of soil can cultivate a doctor like him—unorthodox, deeply knowledgeable, and bold. I want to walk the path he walked and see the truest desires of the patients there. If I stay at Renmin Hospital forever, I’m afraid my medical skills will sooner or later turn into cold, lifeless research papers."

Hearing this, Song Luojun set down his teacup, stood up, and walked over to Ju Jiahong, patting his shoulder approvingly.

"Good," Song Luojun nodded repeatedly. "Although the conditions in Guanghe District are a bit rough, the variety of cases is vast, and the sense of community is strong. Jiahong, the fact that you’re willing to set aside the prestige of a chief physician to station yourself at a mere health center shows you’ve truly achieved enlightenment in your craft. This old man fully supports you.

"However," he shifted his tone, teasingly adding, "going to Guanghe is all well and good, but if you manage to bring a girl home for the New Year’s Eve dinner before the Spring Festival, I’ll have a lot more leverage when I petition the Health Department to recognize your time there as a ’fieldwork merit.’"

Ju Jiahong fell utterly speechless.

Meanwhile, at the Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine.

"What seems to be the problem?"

Inside the expert consultation room, Li Xu looked at the patient sitting across from him.

Sitting before him was a gray-haired elderly woman. Though dressed decently, she was exceedingly emaciated. Her loose clothes hung off her frame, making her look entirely hollowed out, and her eyes revealed a dull numbness born from the prolonged torment of chronic illness.

Accompanying the old woman was a lady in her early fifties, looking deeply anxious. Upon entering, she first placed a heavy plastic bag on the desk, brimming with medical test reports and various pill bottles.

"Dean Li, please take a good look at her. My mother has been tormented by this illness for over a year." The patient’s daughter’s eyes reddened before she could say much more. "We’ve been to four or five major hospitals, and we’ve visited here several times too. We’ve done a mountain of tests, but not only has she not improved, she’s getting worse. Just look at how skeletal she’s become."

Li Xu reached out and gently pulled the old woman’s matchstick-thin wrist toward him. Resting his fingertips on her pulse, he felt the rhythm and asked softly, "Don’t panic. Tell me the details. When did this start, and what are the symptoms?"

The daughter gathered her thoughts and sighed. "About a year ago, my mom suddenly started getting hungry very easily. Less than two hours after lunch, she would clamor for snacks. Her appetite practically doubled. At the time, our whole family was quite happy. We thought an elderly person being able to eat and drink well was a blessing and a sign of robust health. But who knew...

"In less than a month, not only did she fail to gain weight, she actually dropped six or seven pounds. She lost all her energy and would pant after taking just a few steps. Terrified, we rushed her to a general hospital. The Western medicine doctors ran a bunch of tests and finally diagnosed her with hyperthyroidism, prescribing a ton of medication. But after taking it for half a year, even though her lab indicators stabilized a bit, she remained emaciated, and her hands even started shaking."

"And then?" Li Xu asked, looking at the densely packed traditional Chinese medicine prescriptions on her medical records.

"Then we switched to traditional Chinese medicine. We went through three or four experts. Some said it was an overactive fire due to Yin deficiency and prescribed the Six Flavor Rehmannia Pill, but she took it for two months without any results. Later, we went to another clinic, and they said the fire was too strong, so they switched her to the Zhibai Rehmannia Pill. But the more medicine she took, the worse her appetite became, and the weaker she got. Now, she can barely walk."

Flipping through the prescriptions, Li Xu already had a clear idea of what was going on.

Letting go of the old woman’s wrist, he carefully scrutinized her complexion and asked, "How are her bowel movements? Are they smooth?"

"Dry, extremely dry," the daughter described with a frown. "They’re like sheep droppings—little hard pellets. Every time she uses the toilet, it’s like she’s being tortured."

"What about her sleep and water intake?"

"She dreams a lot and sleeps lightly. She’s incredibly thirsty and has to drink two large thermoses of water a day. And it’s really strange—she used to hate the cold, but now she has to drink iced water to feel comfortable. Warm water can’t suppress the fire in her chest."

Li Xu nodded, gesturing for the old woman to open her mouth. "Here, let me see your tongue."

The old woman cooperatively stuck out her tongue. The flesh of her tongue was a bright, glossy red with almost no visible coating, appearing extremely parched.

"The pulse is thin and wiry, and the tongue is red with little coating."

Retracting his gaze, Li Xu turned to Li Lin, who was standing to the side taking notes, and asked with a testing tone, "Li Lin, what do you make of this case?"

Li Lin pondered for a moment before answering earnestly. "The patient eats a lot but is easily hungry, suffers from emaciation, has an intense thirst with a preference for cold drinks, and experiences dry stools. Judging from the surface symptoms, it indeed matches the characteristics of ’wasting-thirst’ syndrome. The previous doctors diagnosed it as ’Yin deficiency leading to excessive fire.’ Based on the prescriptions, they took the approach of nourishing the kidney Yin and clearing the ministerial fire. Logically, it seems sound."

"Then why wasn’t it effective?" Li Xu guided him.

"Well..." Li Lin scratched his head, somewhat uncertain. "Could it be that the dosage was insufficient? Or perhaps they identified the wrong source of the fire?"

"You’re right about the latter half."

Li Xu turned around and explained to the patient’s family, "Most of the doctors you saw before made the mistake of relying entirely on empiricism. In traditional Chinese medicine, Yin deficiency leading to excessive fire is indeed a common diagnosis. However, humans have five visceral organs, and each has its own Yin and Yang. Many doctors see a seventy-year-old patient and subconsciously assume that ’the kidneys fail first in old age.’ They assume the fire is burning from the kidneys, so they desperately prescribe medicine to nourish the kidney Yin.

"But for this elderly lady, the illness is not in her kidneys. It’s in her liver and stomach. This is ’excessive stomach fire’ triggered by a ’liver Yin deficiency.’"

The patient’s daughter was taken aback. "Liver and stomach? But she hasn’t felt any pain in her stomach or liver."

"There is a saying in the *Suwen: Treatise on Reversal by Qi* that goes, ’When heat shifts from the large intestine to the stomach, the person eats well but remains thin; this is called food-consuming.’ In layman’s terms, the fire in her stomach is too intense. It’s like a furnace—no matter how much food goes in, it’s instantly burned to ash and cannot be converted into the nutrients the body needs. That’s why she eats so much but keeps getting thinner."

Li Xu pointed to the old woman’s flushed face. "Furthermore, with liver Yin deficiency, the Yin cannot control the Yang, causing the liver fire to surge upward. Has her temper become particularly explosive over the past year or so? Is she easily agitated and prone to throwing fits over the slightest thing?"

The patient’s daughter slapped her thigh. "Incredible! Dean Li, you’re absolutely spot-on! My mom used to have a very gentle temperament, but she’s completely changed this past year. She spends all day complaining that someone doesn’t care about her or that something isn’t going her way. She can sulk for an entire day. We just thought she was getting senile in her old age. Are you saying it’s all because of this illness?"

"That explains it," Li Xu confirmed as he typed a prescription into the computer. "When liver fire is excessive, the spirit is restless, which is why she dreams constantly and has nightmares. When stomach fire is excessive, it depletes the Yin fluids, causing intense thirst and cravings for cold drinks, because the cold temporarily suppresses that burning sensation. The Six Flavor Rehmannia Pills she took before were meant to put out the ’fire’ in her kidneys, but right now, it’s her liver and stomach that are ablaze. That’s like trying to put out a fire in the kitchen by drenching the bathroom. How could that possibly work?"

"No wonder..." Enlightenment finally dawned on the daughter.